Free Republic

HOUSTON — The Mostyn Law Firm and its attorneys are spending a small fortune to ensure Texas Sen. Wendy Davis' political ambitions come to fruition. The most recent contribution came on Dec. 31, with the Mostyn Law Firm ringing in the New Year by donating $1 million to the Texas Victory Committee -- a joint project of Wendy R. Davis for Governor and Battleground Texas, according to the Texas Ethics Commission. Davis, a Democratic gubernatorial candidate, is no stranger to law firms specializing in civil litigation, as she first joined the Fort Worth law office of Haynes & Boone in...

EDITED......Albany pols are in a boiling dispute over who gets to spend a $600M housing foreclosure settlement from JP Morgan Chase. Sap-happy lefties want to help underwater homeowners victimized by the subprime debacle.....vote-crazed Gov Cuomo's infected with "higher office brain disease" -- plans $2 billion in tax cuts – though his plan doesn’t count on the $600M settlement money. Bertha Lewis, president of the Black Insitute and former head of ACORN, said, “What I want to know is WTF? Why take our funds? This settlement money was intended to help struggling homeowners in New York, too many of whom are...

Comedians Sarah Silverman, Zach Galifianakis and others are scheduled to appear for an evening of comedy and music Sunday to raise funds for Texas abortions. The event, titled “A Night of A Thousand Vaginas!” will take place at the Largo at the Coronet in Los Angeles and is being billed as an “emergency benefit to help Texas women” who have been affected by Texas’ new abortion restrictions passed in the state over the summer. “A is For is organizing this emergency benefit to raise money for Texas abortion funds (Lilith Fund, TEA Fund, Whole Women’s Health Action Fund, and Fund...

The BBC has spent tens of thousands of pounds over six years trying to keep secret an extraordinary ‘eco’ conference which has shaped its coverage of global warming, The Mail on Sunday can reveal. The controversial seminar was run by a body set up by the BBC’s own environment analyst Roger Harrabin and funded via a £67,000 grant from the then Labour government, which hoped to see its ‘line’ on climate change and other Third World issues promoted in BBC reporting. At the event, in 2006, green activists and scientists – one of whom believes climate change is a bigger...

Gun control advocate Mark Kelly says his political action committee is looking ahead to 2014 races, and has the cash on hand to back its agenda. Kelly, the husband of former Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, said on WAMU’s “Diane Rehm Show” Thursday that the PAC the couple founded, Americans for Responsible Solutions, has raised more than $11 million. The money will be going into congressional races to act as a counterweight against heavy hitters on the pro-gun side like the National Rifle Association, he said.

Ryan Bell, a former pastor who lost all his jobs after announcing he will experiment with atheism for a year, is currently getting overwhelming financial support from atheists and others after revealing in the fourth day of his controversial experiment that he was running out of money. "So I find myself, on Day 4, without any employment. My savings will run out in about two weeks and I'm scrambling to find immediate work doing, well…anything—manual labor, waiting tables, other teaching and consulting, or whatever I can find," wrote Bell, a Seventh Day Adventist, on his blog 'Year Without God'. Atheist...

The Republican Main Street Partnership has emerged as an outspoken, deep-pocketed player in pro-business GOP plans to beat back tea-party challengers next year. But the group's new super PAC has an unexpected source for its seed money: labor unions. The super PAC, called Defending Main Street, has not yet submitted a major donor disclosure to the Federal Election Commission. But documents filed by other groups show that two labor organizations, the International Union of Operating Engineers and the Laborers' International Union of North America, directed a combined $400,000 to the Republican group in September and October. Main Street says it...

BREAKING: Moderate GOP PAC That Promised to Beat Back Tea Party Challengers Bankrolled by Labor Unions liberal Republicans can’t beat conservatives without labor union support?

The Minneapolis Star Tribune investigates independent political spending over the last few election cycles. The results are stark, but won’t surprise anyone who has been paying attention: A Star Tribune analysis of ­campaign finance records found that just three dozen individuals or entities have contributed more than $27 million to political action and independent expenditure committees over the past three election cycles. The analysis shows those donations heavily favored Democrats. Unless that trend is reversed, Republicans could find themselves at a disadvantage heading into the 2014 elections…. No kidding. One union — the powerful ­Education Minnesota teachers union — poured...

The Justice Department has reportedly delayed until next year a decision on whether to indict outgoing Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell and his wife in connection with a gifts scandal — a decision that came after a face-to-face appeal by the couple’s lawyers. A report by The Washington Post late Wednesday night said U.S. Attorney Dana Boente told lawyers for the governor and first lady Maureen McDonnell a week ago that he planned to ask a grand jury to return an indictment by this past Monday over allegedly inappropriate help they gave dietary supplement maker Star Scientific after receiving gifts from...

The liberal Center for American Progress (CAP) this year promised corporate donors a chance to meet Hillary Rodham Clinton in return for a $250,000 donation, documents obtained by The Hill show. The meeting never happened, though Clinton spoke at the anniversary gala at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium that was cited on the solicitation. “None of the patrons were able to meet with Secretary Clinton but our board and trustees did meet with her at the event,” said Andrea Purse, a CAP spokeswoman. The documents ask prospective donors to contribute to CAP’s “Progressive Party,” which was held Oct. 24 to...

Just a few dozen stations now carry liberal talkers, as key affiliates in cities with active left-wing politics are falling like dominoes, going dark or switching formats. Detroit’s progressive outlet shut down in January, along with Seattle’s liberal talk station, which changed to sports. And after last year’s election, Portland’s progressive talk station ended its political programming. With the political battlegrounds of 2014 and 2016 on the horizon, reducing the whopping imbalance between conservative radio, with its huge fan base, and the left has become more important than ever, according to those in the progressive media world. POLITICO spoke with...

Bill de Blasio has appointed his transition committee and it includes Imam Khalid Latif. Latif is one of the cleaner faces of CAIR. He was a chaplain at Princeton and now NYU. Bloomberg appointed him to be a police chaplain and he’s won interfaith awards.He’s young enough and savvy enough to play the moderate role really well. You won’t catch him shouting “Death to America” or “We are all Osama” when the cameras are off. And his presence as a CAIR board member will be overlooked by most. In 2006, when deadly protests broke out in the Muslim world...

Ticket sales for President Obama’s big fundraiser Monday at the SFJazz Center are so sluggish, organizers are cutting the price of some tickets in half. The cheap seats for the Democratic National Committee luncheon — the ones that were going for $1,000 — have been reduced to $500, according to an e-mail to potential donors sent out Monday by Ella Arnold of Buell Private Political Management in San Francisco. Arnold added, “We are thrilled to announce that if you have already purchased a $1,000 ticket … your seat will now be upgraded to VIP, which includes rope line access!” We’re...

First Lady Michelle Obama is telling Democratic donors to pay. "[I]t's simple, you can write a big ol' fat check," the first lady told Democrats at a fundraiser. "That's what we need you to do. Right now, write a big check -- big huge one -- write the biggest check you can possibly write.

Victory has a thousand fathers, as the saying goes, while defeat is always an orphan. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is making sure everyone knows he has a claim for paternity when it comes to the narrow victory won by Democrat Terry McAuliffe in Virginia’s gubernatorial race.Bloomberg hit the cable-news airwaves  the day after the Virginia election to argue McAuliffe’s narrow victory was proof the state’s voters were swayed by the $1.2 million he spent on TV advertisements  pushing gun control measures during the last days of the race.There’s just one problem. In the two weeks after Bloomberg got...

Chicago — Observers in this land infamous for political tricks say a popular method of winning elections is to ensure all of your opponents are thrown off the ballot — the tactic the Daley machine used to first elect an unopposed Barack Obama to the Illinois state senate. Another: Throw a ringer into the race to draw votes away from your real opponent. That latter tactic seems to have been employed by Democrats in this week’s close gubernatorial race in Virginia. And it may have made the difference. There were many reasons Republican Ken Cuccinelli lost, ranging from his poor...

Barack Obama, doing what he does best, is back campaigning and fundraising hard for the next five weeks. Obama’s plans include eight fundraisers for Democrats in the House and Senate. The events include: 1. New York: Fundraising for House Democrats and the Democratic National Committee (DNC). 2. Boston: a House Democratic fundraiser on Oct. 30. 3. November 6, Dallas: No: another fundraiser 4. November 8, Miami: an event for Senate Democrats. 5. November 14, Philadelphia: another event for Senate Democrats 6. Seattle: fundraising for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) 7. San Francisco: more fundraising for House Democrats. 8. Los...

Breitbart News has confirmed that much of the credit for Terry McAuliffe’s narrow 47.9 percent to 45.5 percent victory over Republican Ken Cuccinelli in Tuesday’s election is attributable to a $4 million donation the McAuliffe campaign gave to the Democratic Party of Virginia, which used those funds to run a highly effective ground game for the party’s full slate of candidates. Ashley Bauman, press secretary for the Democratic Party of Virginia, told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview on Wednesday that "[w]hile we used that money [the $4 million donated to the Democratic Party of Virginia from the McAuliffe campaign]...

A heated battle is taking place in Arizona between the fledgling solar industry and APS, the state’s largest energy company, which enjoys a state-granted near-monopoly over energy. In sunny Arizona, it is peculiar that solar energy is being portrayed as the bad guy. Since Arizona is a Republican-dominated state, APS is sneakily buying up influential Republicans, both directly and indirectly, to perpetuate its crony capitalism. The Washington Post refers to these Republicans as “some of the best pollsters and consultants money can buy.” The spin goes like this, “stop subsidizing the solar industry.” The word “subsidy” is used to scare...